


Shattered Introspections

by QuillOwl



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Post-KH3 Speculation, Pre-Slash, Spoilers - Kingdom Hearts III, no beta we die like fools
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-01 23:38:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17876957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuillOwl/pseuds/QuillOwl
Summary: "Wait for me," he speaks. Reaching out, he places a hand on both, letting their warmth fill the hollow of his chest. "I'll come back to you both, I promise."For those he loves, Sora will do anything. Even endure a strenuous journey through the heart and all its fragments.Contains spoilers for the KH3 epilogue and secret movie.





	Shattered Introspections

**Author's Note:**

> Yes hello I jumped into the KH games about a year ago and oh boy do I _regret_ that now. I am still very emotional about my Best Boy. Once my post-game grief is other, Square better be ready to _catch these hands_.

They did it.

Sitting on the papou tree, with a balance perfected by a lifetime of visits, Sora feels the blushing colours of twilight paint his face. It embraces him with warmth and salty air. The air hums with the soft ambiance only home brings, the waves washing in with the slow rhythm like a lullaby.

Emotional paradoxes fight and collide, jarring Sora’s gut. The islands stir a fire of exhilaration, the bubbling waters of joy, and a harrowing emptiness of relief.

“We’re here.” Sora breathes out, voice light on the delicate ocean breeze.

Then it all flushes out, as if taken by the receding waves, and he is left with a cold inevitability that ensnares his heart. It snakes through his chest and pierces deep into his bones.

“Sora,” Kairi speaks, and he didn’t realise he closed his eyes. She looks at him, her irises swimming with emotions, with a twinkle that rivals the splendour of stars. His heart melts, sickly warm.

“It’s okay,” he says, as his chest is wrenched tight. “You’re home, it’s okay.”

He expected this. On the reflective pools of that final world, his very existence the last display of Kairi’s phenomenal strength before they were torn apart, he knew the risks. It would take all his heart, he said, and he meant it.

There was no use denying the truth. Sora speaks sincerely yet chooses words with a recklessness as distinct as his heart or the keyblade he wields. Now, however, stranded in the horrified silence, watched the stars in Kairi’s eyes dimming like a dying universe, Sora realises he spoke foolishly. For, this was it. It was their final moment and he dared to utter false assurances.

“I’m sorry,” Sora utters, avoiding her gaze to see the kaleidoscope glimmer of the skyline. He hopes the words are enough to express the apologies he wished to say for losing her and finding her in an endless chase, for never being fast or strong or enough, for sacrificing everything to find her heart and…

For leaving her with his aftermath.

There are many more apologies, for many more people. If he thinks too much about it, it will overwhelm him. He will drown completely. Sora’s heart twists as he thinks of silver hair, wide teal eyes and the softest smile. Riku let him go, gave Sora approval he didn’t ask for but sure as hell needed, and he will be left with the consequence.

“I’m so sorry, to both of you, I…” His breath catches and it shudders through him. Sora feels it, the wash of numb flooding in - the harbinger of oblivion. 

A hand holds his own and silences the call of fate. He feels her warmth and hope and tries to hold it close, like how his trembling hand clings to her own even as it fades into the warm rays of sunlight.

“You promised, remember?” Kairi says, and her face trembles as she forces a smile. She looks over the tree, it’s communion of hanging fruit looking down on them, before glancing at shore, at the people Sora knows are waiting for them.

“I did,” he replied, laughing softly although his heart aches, “I’ll come back to you. Always.”

“I know,” Kairi smiles, before she looks up, eyes fiery with determination and an unspoken emotion that leaves Sora breathless. “I believe in you.”

A single tear rolls down her cheek. It shines bright in the setting sun and Sora yearned to reach out, to wipe the tear away and take all the emotion it held with it. He couldn’t, however, as he was immobile against the numbness that takes over.

Sora smiles before he fades, welcomed into the nothingness.

* * *

It was jarring. Sora expected falling into nothing to be serene, for him to fade into the ethereal. He didn’t expect agony. Everything became intangible through the pain, his thoughts slipping into the dark.

He reached out, experienced the action although he couldn’t feel the sensation. The desperation ruptured from him, the only distinction amongst the void, and Sora clung to the emotion as he struggled.

Sora held tight, to the memory of warmth and promises, as the darkness swarmed in. Gravity returned with a sickening lurch, and Sora plummeted.

Nobody witnessed Sora fall in the oblivion. Nothing could warn him of the kaleidoscope of lights slowly rising to meet him, until he was blinded by the firework of colours. He could only gasp at the sight, before he collided with glass.

With a catastrophic crack, Sora’s heart shattered into pieces.

* * *

His heart was gone.

_I’m sorry…_

He can feel himself fading, his mind and being splintering into infinity.

_…Kairi…Riku…_

Sora made a promise. Hundreds of promises, in fact. To protect them, to save them, to support them even if the worlds fell apart. For Kairi and Riku, he swore the most important promise of all. An oath that, despite all promises before and after, he will always come back to them. He will always come home.

_No. I **refuse**._

Kingdom Hearts cannot have him.

Darkness embraced him, a metaphysical experience beyond concept or comprehension. It tugged him into existence and held him there, stagnant. Sensation struck through him, and Sora breathed life once more.

Sora lingered in the abyss. Despite everything, he willed on.

* * *

When Sora came back to consciousness, a sensation he did not anticipate in an existence beyond sleep, he was meet with the indescribable he anticipated. Empty nothingness greeted him. Whether time or space moved in this place, Sora did not know. All that existed was himself and the abyss.

But he was alive. It was an existence in a place beyond physical, but he existed, and it was a relief Sora savoured.

“So, what now?” He asks. The sound wasn’t heard, however, as it was snatched away by the vacuum.

Sighing, he searched inside and shuddered at the hollowness of his chest. Heart was still broken, but he existed. Sora had limited options, and they were reliant on the miracles of optimism. But he was too tired. The fretful jolt that hope brings drained from the vacancy in his ribs. He was left with one option.

So, Sora waits.

* * *

Boredom was inevitable. Sora shouldn’t have been surprised. Being lost in an endless unknown was dull. Yet, the abyss bought a realisation. He was free from the restraints of the physical. He may be lost, but it left him liberated. Completely unchained.

Thus, if Sora focuses, imagines being set adrift, he can see. When he reaches out to the abandoned fragments of his heart, he encounters life.

Only snippets of sights or senses, fragments of the past or future or times between. He cannot determine. Whether he is encountering people’s hearts or their worlds, he also doesn’t know. But it is enough.

It fills him with content and a harrowing despair, and Sora adheres to both. If he can feel, he has a heart. That's a rule he will stand by, ever since trading glances with his other in their first hello and goodbye. He feels, so he still has his heart. The where and the how don’t matter. His heart still exists. It can be found and pieced together.

He drifts, relishes in the freedom, before he glimpses worn bricked walls and feels warm daylight, flower petal flying around and musical fanfare singing.

Cobble stones brush against his feet, as they display the beautiful patterns of a sun. He is spinning around but doesn't feel dizzy and feels joy fizzle inside before it overflows, bubbling out in a laugh that is light and beautiful and happy.

Rapunzel is dancing and finally home, with her family and a new dream.

Another world in peace. Satisfied, Sora drifts again, setting towards the next shelter where a fragment of his heart resides.

* * *

If Sora doesn’t drift, he waits. Time is indiscernible but he persists, for the alternative leaves him trembling. He persists, even when the darkness doesn’t feel empty, but is a physical force that is expanding. It wants to suffocate. It threatens crush him until his ribs break and he chokes on blood turned frigid with despair.

He cries out for his friends. Only silence responds.

* * *

“I miss him.”

Sora blinks, stunned by the midday sun. It casts shadows across the palm trees, flickering sun spots back and forth across his eyes. Only a glance is enough to his soul tremble, the familiarity ringing in his chest like a perfect harmony.

He cast himself to the fragments of his heart and found himself on Destiny Islands.

Before he can settle, he lurches forward. Warm arms embrace him, tight and shaking. Hands brush against short hair and settle on his scalp, with a tender hold that makes him unravel. His vision is lost in bright pink cloth and red hair and blurry tears that aren’t his own.

“I know, Riku. I miss him too.”

Kairi spoke softly, and it sets Sora ablaze. Until he feels a shudder runs through him, followed by a choked whine, and it freezes him to his core. Sora forgets the restraints of his experiences. He can feel, reach out to the fragments of his heart, but only through others.

Trapped, Sora can only watch as Riku cries. Tears blur his vision and Riku wilts, head falling against Kairi’s collarbone. She reacts, hugging tighter as her small frame shakes with her own weeps.

The air is thick with emotion. Thick enough to engulf Sora, as the grief and sorrow and guilt strip him bare. Sora’s chest wrings, a pain unlike before. Not a piercing agony but a dull, throbbing ache were his heart should be. He yearns to reach out. To cup Kairi’s cheek or part Riku’s hair and wipe their tears, but he is frozen.

Sora is hit with the realisation that he’s intruding. This is moment between the two that shouldn’t be witnessed, and he’s here without a warning. Mortified, Sora’s gut twists, and he almost drifts out to give them both peace.

But, the sheer thought of leaving them terrifies him. It wraps him tight and squeezes, and it makes Sora choke inside. He can’t abandon them, not again, and he refuses to try.

“He’ll come back to us, Riku,” Kairi speaks, voice ragged. She pulls back to rub at her eyes, “I’m sure of it.”

Sora feels the smile that Riku gives. It was delicate, threatening to crumble under the sea breeze, but it was enough. Kairi smiled back, bright and blinding, and Sora can see the stars burst in her eyes.

“I know he will,” Riku speaks, “I believe in him. We both do.” Riku places a hand over his chest, and the shock strikes Sora. It was inexplicable, the sudden connection he felt, as if Riku felt his presence and was reaching down into his own heart to hold him. “As long as we do, he will always come home.”

Emotions flow over him, soft and soothing. They flood his senses, overwhelming everything that he doesn’t even notice the rising pain from his fleeting presence in the world. He fades again, on a wave of bliss. 

* * *

He can’t stay anymore. Savouring his survival has made him forget. Although the abyss was suspended, time was moving and he will be left behind. Sora cannot allow it. He made an oath and he must abide.

"They believe in me," he speaks but it dies in the darkness, suffocated. “No! I will go back! They believe in me!” Sora yells, so loud it takes his breath. It echoes out and back, repeating like a rallying call.

Electricity jolts through him. Fretful hope rears up, violently raging inside him. It scrapes up emotions and words brewing deep in, he sets them free. “Nothing will keep me away from them! I won’t let it! I-” He bites it back. The void in his chest ached at the realisation of what words almost overflowed.

Because, in truth, he loves Riku and Kairi. He loves them completely. Like time and space and the colours of the night sky, his love for them is an absolute. They are his friends, his allies, his home. They hold his heart and he loves them.

He swallows the truth down. But it bursts across his body, blossoming into sunlit warmth and injecting fire into his blood. “No,” he shakes his head, “I won’t say it. Not until I’m home.”

Casting off, Sora sets towards any fragment. He almost loses himself amongst the island skyline and salty tears on his cheeks but refuses to indulge in the sensation again. He steels himself. As if he can capture on to the moment he sees, Sora imagines holding the fragment in his hands and heaves.

Pain engulfs him and all sensations succumb to the agony. Yet, he keeps pulling. He pictures the fragment moving closer, reaching up from the void, until the hurt burns out his thoughts.

Sora screams, curling into himself. He wonders whether he could vomit in a metaphysical void. With a sigh he slips back, expecting the abyss to wrap over him until the pain is replaced with nothingness again.

Then staggers as his balance tilts. He moves, the action foreign and slow, then startles at the rapid tilt of his feet. He glances down, and gasps.

Two shards of glass hold his feet, both casting a soft blue glow on to his eyes. They are long and jagged, but Sora can see the details on the fragments. One shows a sharp jaw and smug smirk, with an eye that Sora knows would be coloured teal. The other shows a pair of eyes and a short fringe, that he knows should be coloured a lavender blue and dark red.

Riku and Kairi. Supporting him, as always.

Sora falls, and one glass fragment holds his knees. He weeps and hold its edges. Kairi’s painted eyes look back at him, details blurry from his tears. Compared to the darkness, the fragments were small, almost insignificant, but they’re his and they’re his home.

"Wait for me," he speaks, casting a look to both pieces with a smile. Reaching out, he places a hand on both, letting their warmth fill the hollow of his chest. "I'll come back to you both, I promise."

* * *

Vacancy brushes against his skin, whispering his inevitable end, and Sora clings to the glass pieces to ground him. In the worst moments, he wonders whether he can fall off the fragments, and fall into a deeper abyss. Now, each time he passes out, Sora fears he’ll fall and slip away.

Shaking out the haziness, he stands again. Sora looks around, ignoring the stabbing sensation underneath his skin. A new shard floats amongst the void, a bright, obnoxious yellow. He lets out a breath, relieved. Gritting his teeth, he continues his mission until pain drives him unconscious again.

* * *

If he yearns for it, savours all his energy and patience, he can drift off and reach out to people.

Excruciating pain aside, it was exhilarating. Being able to see himself again, remember the curve of his hands and the specific groves of his necklace even if it is all tinted yellow from the light he emits.

Sora surveys, in case he needs to drift away quickly. For, he only allows this when his friends are asleep. This power is only possible by his connection to them, but Sora doesn’t how in-depth the connection is. When he reaches out, the fragments scrape and hollow out his chest each time, and he fears they would feel the same if sleep didn’t hinder them. Sora doesn't want to hurt them. Even if it doesn't hurt physically, the knowledge of him being here might hurt in a more painful way.

However, this was a situation he did not consider. Standing in the middle of his bedroom, Sora looked around. His little nightlight twinkled in the corner and his clothes were still dumped on the wooden chair beside the star-shaped window, which overlooked the grounds of the Mysterious Tower. The sight was a low blow that makes him falter, collapsing on to the floor.

He dry heaves but doesn't feel the tears. Instead, glitter falls from his cheeks, sparkles of light a faux expression for his grief. Head falling back, he leans against the bedframe and glances aside at its resident.

"Riku..." Sora sighs, and the name triggers a chorus of drums in his chest. His heart pounds. The shards inside shift and pierce deep, making Sora whimper.

Riku’s there, lost to sleep, hair sprayed across the pillows and his nose scrunched, giving a scowl. Sora leans towards him, pulled closer naturally like gravity. He’s sleeping fitfully, clinging on to the sheets with a desperation.

"Riku, please..."

He reaches out, despite the pain stabbing deep with every breath. His hands are becoming more translucent, colour dripping out until it's only light. Despite this, he holds Riku’s fingers, interlocking their hands so they fit seamlessly.

"Riku, I-" Whether it pain or denial, it shuts Sora up. Despite being home, he cannot say it. Not in this state. "I'm sorry."

He touches Riku's cheek, it's warmth delicate and grounding. Until eyes flicker open with a confused pout.

"W-What? Who's there-?"

Panic hits like a thundaga. Sora scampers backwards, pushing on his legs to gain distance, but slips on abandoned clothes. He kicks the bedframe with a horrid crack that jolts Riku. Pain explodes across Sora’s calf, before it shatters into sparkles of light.

"Sora!" Riku yells and stumbles out of bed to reach him. Light drifts out, unravelling his leg and creeping upwards. Sora could only curl up at the agony, barely holding on.

"Sora, Sora! Hey," he feels a hand yank him away from his knees and sees wide eyes. Sora didn't know he forgot the exact shade of teal until he saw them, and it makes him sob, "is it really-?"

He nods vigorously, despite the shockwaves of pain down his spine. "I-I'm sorry-"

"Shut up, don't say that. It's...It will be okay."

"It won't-!" He clings on, hands trembling. Speckles of light drift up to the ceiling with each tremble of his fingers in Riku's shirt.

"Where are you? We'll find you, just tell us where you are."

And Sora laughs, despite the glitter flooding from his cheeks. Because how could he admit to Riku that Xehanort was right? That he’s lost to the deepest darkest abyss, in the vacant remnants left from a heart shattered into oblivion? He can't.

"I-I'm," his tongue is falling away into starlight, so he looks up. He sees Riku's hair, soft and delicate in the light, and his bright eyes glittering, burdened with tears. "I'm here." He says, placing his hand on his chest before it fades away.

"I'm right here."

"Remember what I said?” Riku says, placing a hand on Sora's cheek, the last pieces of him to fade away. “I believe in you. We all do."

Although he’s falling apart, the words make Sora feel whole. He smiles, then whittles out into nothing once more.

* * *

Sora found out that you cannot, in fact, vomit in the metaphysical void. Instead, the icy hot sensation explodes, turning painful to excruciating until he passes out. He wished he never questioned it in the first place.

Standing up, Sora sways precariously, throwing his hands out to stable. Whether it was from the subsiding pain or the floating glass, he cannot be bothered to figure out. Instead, he surveys the plane, spotting sparkles off glass like beacons in the dark.

He jumps, bouncing between shards. The fragments boost him, sending him high with each leap, that it almost resembles flying. The sensation strikes a deep nostalgia that makes him laugh.

Amongst the contrast of colour and vacancy, Sora spots his prize. A new fragment returned to his heart. It is larger than normal and is stained a deep red. With its appearance, the space between look like cracks rather than chasms. Sora prepares, kneeling low, before he launches towards it.

His foot catches the edge and he reels. “No!” Sora cries out, as the fragment tilts forward and throws him towards the abyss.

He stops. Something claws into his arm and yanks him back, and Sora flies back. Colliding with the glass, he winces and pulls up to see Kairi’s painted eyes looking up at him. With a stagger, he settles into the middle, stable, then turns.

A shadow stares back.

Sora yelps, and scuffles back. His shoes squeak against Kairi’s cheek and he tense. Tilting its head, the shadow blinks back, yet doesn’t move.

With a quick glance, Sora takes in its features. It was a faux silhouette of himself, his clothes and face drained into facets of black and dark blues. Pointed talons curl out from its hands and wisps of darkness trail of its back and arms like smoke. Red eyes, shockingly bright, bore into Sora. When he stares back, it riles up emotions deep in his gut, fury and sorrow exploding out like lava and makes him want to lash out and obliterate everything in his path.

“It’s you?” Sora asks, tentative. Incredulous, he reaches out and the shadow doesn’t retaliate, leaning closer as his fingers brush its cheek.

It’s cold and fiery and full of sensation. A brutal maliciousness held back by rage and desperation for survival. Although lost in darkness, Sora forgot what true Darkness was. The power it contained, threatening to ignite. Sora gasped at the sensation, clenching his arm to refrain from yanking back.

“If you’re here…” Sora starts, steadying his breath. “Then…then I’m almost there?”

The shadow, his darkness, looks back at him. Despite the obscurity of its face, Sora startles as he notices an upturned smile. Stepping back, it crouches down and seeps through. Sora could only gawk as its shadow tendrils spread out between the fragments, then solidify with a thunderous echo.

Sora taps the glass and it doesn’t move, held solid under his weight. The glass surrounding him stays still, held together by bands of black iron.

Brushing his fingers against the metal, Sora shivers at the feeling of Darkness against his skin. He smiles. “Thank you,” he says, despite not knowing who he’s grateful to.

* * *

Despite the pain, he refuses to sleep. When the darkness calls him to rest, he flees. Instead, he watches his friends drift off through their dreams. Riku and Kairi took turns on his bed, as several visits showed, but tonight they shared together. They were embraced at every limb, as if tied like an intricate knot, inseparable. Although, Sora wouldn’t dare part them anyway. 

Stroking their hair, he gently holds them both, feelings each strand of their hair and the slowly rhythm of their bodies as the breathed in and out. Their lean towards him in response, naturally reaching out for his light despite the ignorance of sleep. In sleep, however, they still look exhausted, with Sora easily spotting the dark, hollowed circle beneath their eyes. If his actions were a comfort, then he’ll gladly never stop.

Sora thinks he can’t stop. Because he can already feel the ache seeping in, slowly and certain like treacle, and if he stops it will soon consume him. That was a risk he could rarely take anymore.

But their warmth and peace flow over him and he slips off, unaware, into sleep. He lands almost technicolour rays and a kaleidoscope of warmth.

He wants to hit the glass planes in frustration, but he already sees the webbed cracks stretch out beneath him. "Why?!" He yells instead. It reverbs across the surface of his heart, echoing out to the abyss. "Why do I keep coming back?!"

He shouldn’t be, because his heart is complete. There isn’t a fragment out of place, Sora ensured it. Yet, shards float amongst each other, almost perfectly aligned. They are perfectly aligned but the spaces between are hollow. Fragments sway and drift amongst the dark like broken ice on water, each collision sending a thumping ache across his chest.

His heart was together, but he was still lost.

"I can't figure it out, so what do you want?!" He shouldn't treat his heart like a separate entity but sometimes it's the only logical way. It acts unaware and calls him back and yet Sora doesn't understand, like a two-way call but his side has been cut. He's stranded with no signal.

Sora weeps, bowing his head to ride the grief. He hopes that his heart just freezes other, enough so the pieces stay still forever or for just a moment. He doesn’t care, as long as it stops.

He hears a whirring static, deep and silent, and it strikes an instinct that makes him bristle. He sees his shadow rise from the glass, seeping out for the broken gilded iron set between some of the edges. His form looks down at him, red eyes dim, head tilted.

"It's not you," he sniffles, "You're doing great."

Because his dark form is the only thing stopping most of the shards from floating away. It seeps down and reforms into iron holds, black and solid, clinging around the edges of the dark. However, the holds cut off close to the centre, unable to stretch further, and the spectrum of fragments it fails to hold shift and slide.

It almost makes Sora laugh. All that time trying to avoid the darkness, all those warnings about the demise it will bring, and it’s the only thing keeping him together. Yet, even that is not enough. Lacking the darkness to hold the pieces and lacking light to fuse the cracks. Whatever it is Sora needs, he doesn't have enough of it. He isn't enough.

Cold settles deep in his gut and he shivers.

“I can’t do it,” he realises. He glances below, at the spiderweb of cracks spread deep within the glass. The inevitability traps him. When the fragment breaks, all others will flow, and Sora knows he will not survive a second time.

He curls in, tucking his head into his knees. Maybe if he cannot see it, it won’t happen. Or he’ll close he eyes then wake up in his bed, with Kairi and Riku squawking at the rude appearance only to realise and burst into tears or punch him in the arm so hard it bruises. He’ll then tell them everything, have it burst out like a geyser. Admit that he’s broken, yes, but knows he can be fixed, because they are both stronger than him and he’d trust them with his heart for all eternity.

Nothing wakes him up. He was going to die.

Sora doesn’t apologise this time. Apologising implies they could hear him. Despite everything, Sora cannot go on. He lays on his side, curls up tight, and waits for the inevitable.

* * *

_The game is not other yet._

“Huh?” Sora awakes. A voice whispers, gentle yet striking. The words scrape deep inside him, stirring up a sense of familiarity that leaves him whirring.

_What power do you seek?_

He stands up, looks around. Nobody else is there. The answer was obvious to Sora. “The power to…to protect the ones I love.”

_Give your power form._

He reaches out, certain, and wishes with his heart. Gripping down, Sora feels the weight of metal pulls on his fingers. With a blinding flash, his keyblade appears. It hums with power, which soaks into his arms and deep into his chest.

_It is time to awaken. Seek your friends, return your heart home, and regain your power. It is not over yet._

“What do you mean?” He yells. Silence rings out until he gasps, his feet jolting as they are enveloped in a vortex of inky black and purple. 

_Your destiny awaits. Remember, Sora:_

Sora sinks down, through the glass, slipping away into the unknown. Yet, he does not struggle. He closes his eyes.

_You will be the one to open the door._

Lightning strikes his entire being, burning furiously, and he jolts. His cheek stings with frigid wet and –

His heart stutters. Sora clings to his shirt, feels the worn damp fabric and hammering beat pulsing underneath. Sora waits for piercing agony that never arrives. Aches throb across his whole body but his heart is unharmed.

He groans, reaching out for purchase. Leaning up, lights shine into his eyes, reflected from a puddle in the asphalt.

Buildings tower over him, sparkling with a spectrum of vivid colours. The road and paths are empty and stretch out for miles, dwindling off towards unknown routes. Sora stumbles up, glances around. One building stands out, painted a stark white and straight like a lighthouse, a beacon in the metropolitan. It’s neon sign blinks, lighting 104 in a rich red.

Sora turns towards it. He doesn’t know this place, cannot begin to compare it with the worlds he’s visited. Yet, his heart calls him to move, and it is a sensation that overpowers Sora. Whatever this new game holds, Sora’s heart will endure it.

“Well,” he places a hand over his chest, over the heart that beats whole, “time to be my guiding key, bud.”

Sora steels himself and journeys on. He has a promise he must keep.

**Author's Note:**

> okay I should probably explain some things:
>
>> 1) The general concept of this fic is that Sora's heart shatters as a consequence for abusing the power of waking again to save Kairi. Unlike Ven, however, Sora's heart is not mended by the light of someone's heart. Instead, the pieces of his heart remain split and reside in Sora's friends, similar to Kairi hiding in Sora's heart in KH1. 
>> 
>> 2) Although his heart is in pieces, Sora's consciousness (his mind/will, basically) remains in tact. Similar to Lingering Will, he persists despite his heart perishing due to his promises to his friends. However, Sora's mind/will has nowhere to go, so it stays in the vacant place his heart used to be. I think the mind/will can take a physical form whilst in a person's heart, hence why we're able to move and interact in the heart during the dive to the heart in the games. 
>> 
>> 3) I am a firm believer that Sora's destiny to "open the door" of Kingdom Hearts has not been completed. Sora has shut the door of KH, in both KH1 and KH3, but never actually been the one to open it. I am still waiting for this to happen and I am excited about the prospect.
> 
> anyway, i hope you enjoyed! i'm not as impressed with this piece as i would like. this is my first time writing for the kh fandom, and my first time writing in a while so i'm likely rusty. please let me know your thoughts and feel free to yell at me on tumblr @[quillowl](http://www.quillowl.tumblr.com)


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